A March 1 Business article about replacements for BlackBerry wireless e-mail service misstated the amount White & Case LLP would have to spend to replace its 1,900 devices. It would cost roughly $400,000, not $40,000.
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Companies Contemplate Life Without BlackBerrys
But most businesses are still waiting for the judge's decision, said Todd Kort, an analyst with Gartner Inc. who said he has talked to 75 to 80 technology officers since November about their contingency plans.
"They're under a fair amount of pressure from their users, and they're getting pressure from above" to make sure systems keep running uninterrupted, Kort said. "But of those, only four or five are in the process of switching service," because changing out the service is expensive and time-consuming, he said.
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Among other things, longtime BlackBerry users are used to the software and the ergonomics of their palm-size devices, so deploying something new would mean losing productivity while people figure out a new system.
Kort remains optimistic that his clients won't have to do that. He said RIM is far more likely to either settle or deploy its work-around than shut down service.
John Stevenson is placing his bets on the work-around. He retired this week as chief information officer at Sharp Electronics' U.S. division, but not before having to decide what to do about the 300 BlackBerrys used by company executives.
"Do we go back to the old way of doing things -- using cell phones, text messaging, and laptop computers," or should the company think about buying a new set of devices at great expense, Stevenson wondered, and he consulted his peers through a trade group, the Society for Information Management. For now, he said, "we're counting on a BlackBerry work-around. Is that a dangerous plan without a Plan C? Maybe."
John Jones is among those information technology executives who think the case won't amount to a hill of beans. "I just see this going in RIM's favor the entire way," said Jones, who is vice president for information technology at Pulver.com Inc., an Internet telephony and technology conference company.
But even Jones has a backup plan. "Right now my colleague is taking a look at the new Microsoft push e-mail technology -- just in case."
